Please help! Coral slowly dying and unknown algae growing

[NewbReefer3451]

Hi all,

Not sure where to start. But basically a few months ago I started to notice my lps coral taking a turn for the worse. My acans stopped puffing out and looking happy and pretty much haven’t been extended out since. My leather stopped opening up all the way and my zoas don’t want to open either.

I couldn’t figure out what the issue could be since all my parameters are spot on and I run triton method.

However I have noticed some sort of algae appearing where the new dead coral flesh is and where I can see the white skeleton. It is brown and stringy and seems to stick to stuff kinda looks slimey. It’s mainly on the coral and sand or near the bottom of the rocks.
Anyways, I wonder if that is an indicator to why my coral has slowly been dying and shriveling is the past two months. Below are pictures and details about the tank. Thanks for the help.

Reefer 350
Triton core7 base elements
Chateo refuge 20% of tank volume
Salinity 1.025
PH 8.07 - 8.13
Cal 450
Mag 1380
Alk 9.0
Phosphate: 0 (this has went flat to 0 no readjng on ULR checker after switching to triton - and I feed a ton with reef chili and my sis shrimp and pellets everyday, also I get like no algae on tank or rocks like I use to) could this be part of the problem?

3 kessil 360x lights, 8 inches mounted and running at 20 clr and

I tried to get good pictures of it but it’s really hard because of the angle it is in the sand

 

[Alexreefer]

Looks like cyano . Could you post nitrate lvls. Also do you run gfo, What kind of filtration do you have?

 

[NewbReefer3451]

Stopped running carbon and GFO when I switched to triton 2.5 months ago. Just ran a Red Sea nitrate test looks to be about 2 ppm definitely <5.

 

[NewbReefer3451]

Stopped running carbon and GFO when I switched to triton 2.5 months ago. Just ran a Red Sea nitrate test looks to be about 2 ppm definitely <5.

Forgot to mention filtration is just the sump with chateo and rock/marine pure and a regal octo skimmer 150 INT

 

[Sagecritter4life]

0 phosphate is a bad thing I found out in my tank at least had the same thing appearing and when I got my phosphate up to .04 ish the dinos went away and coral perked back up.

I had my tank out of balance with about 5 PPM in N03 but devoid of po4 had to dose almost a week straight to even get it to register on am MI412 meter.

 

[Alexreefer]

I would try to dirty the water bit. Try and get you po4 up a bit. Also, do you use ro/di? if its cyano I did weekly 35% w/c. I am not a fan of chemicals but if you want you can use something like chemi clean but I would use that at a last resort.

 

[Sagecritter4life]

Might also check for rust or problems with metals I was having a similar situation a different time and my ICP and Triton test showed very high metals recommended six 20% water changes back to back came to find out my current USA eflux return pump had rusted in less than one year when inspected it

 

[Alexreefer]

You could use an icp test t0 see if everything is correct

 

[Sagecritter4life]

Chemiclean for some is very hit and miss but I'd say 70% love it and use successfully and other 30% hate it (I'm in that group lol). I followed directions to the T and yep got the cyano but corals responded badly lol did more harm than good at least...that time..on my tank...for some reason lol went off script badly

 

[Alexreefer]

Chemiclean for some is very hit and miss but I'd say 70% love it and use successfully and other 30% hate it (I'm in that group lol). I followed directions to the T and yep got the cyano but corals responded badly lol did more harm than good at least...that time..on my tank...for some reason lol went off script badly

Part of the dislike club too. Ruined my corals.

 

[NewbReefer3451]

Ok thank you much, I just sent out an ICP test. My LFS suggested trying to get my PO4 up as well. Anything particular you recommend for dosing? I’m confident if i can solve the underlying problem the cyano will be taken care of. I only use RO/DI water btw.

 

[Sagecritter4life]

I use NeoPhos that got from BRS .

1ml raises 1gal -1.2ppm so on my 100 gal total volume I usually dose about 5-6mls/week to keep it registerable on low range tester at around .06 ish seems be my sweet spot.

Worst I've seen is small hair algae increase but YT and urchin plus lawnmower Blenny make short work of it lol